A haven Kathee wants to keep

Kathee Jimenez and her mother, Teresa Diaz, have found a temporary haven from their troubled past in a transitional house for homeless families in Glendale.

After their lives were fractured by drug abuse and alcoholism while living in a high-crime area of Westminster, Diaz was able to bring 14-year-old Kathee and her three younger siblings north to a Salvation Army group home.

It took Kathee a while to adjust to life in Glendale, Diaz says, but now the family is happy.

“It’s safer and quieter here,” says Kathee, a reticent teenager whose dark eyes glow in her heart-shaped face.

Double bunk beds occupy the cozy bedroom that Kathee shares with her three siblings. A fashion devotee who advises the whole family on what to wear, Kathee has two bureau drawers filled with bells that she uses to accessorize.

Diaz is worried about having to uproot the family again when their two-year stay at the comfortable transitional home ends in December.

“It’s changed completely our lives,” Diaz says. “I wish we could stay here, but, of course, we can’t.”

Supporting her four kids by working as an assistant manager at a Salvation Army boutique, Diaz wonders how she’ll afford Glendale’s high rents. But she’s determined to find a place so her kids can stay in school with their friends. To return to Westminster, she says, “would be very devastating for them and for me.”

The move north has been positive for the family. While Diaz plans to return to school to study management, Kathee has become a fan of her science class and likes working on the group home’s computer. Along with her two sisters and brother, Kathee attends a Salvation Army after-school program in which she takes karate classes and gets tutoring.

And this summer, Kathee will get a break from her concerns about leaving her new home when she returns for a second year to the Salvation Army’s music camp in the Santa Monica Mountains. Kathee learned to play guitar there last summer.

This summer, she might stick with clarinet, which she plays in the school band. She likes the idea of learning tambourine too.

“It’s fun because they show you how to do a dance,” she says.

“During your free time you can go swimming, you can go hiking or go to archery,” says Kathee. “And there’s campfires and there’s singing songs.... And they have really good food.”

About 10,000 children will go to camp this summer, thanks to $1.6 million raised last year.

The annual fundraising campaign is part of the Los Angeles Times Family Fund of the McCormick Tribune Foundation, which this year will match the first $1.1 million in contributions at 50 cents on the dollar.

Donations are tax-deductible. For more information, call (213) 237-5771.

To make donations by credit card, go to latimes.com/summercamp.

To send checks, use the attached coupon. Do not send cash.

Unless requested otherwise, gifts of $50 or more will be acknowledged in The Times.